Minä näen kissan, joka on kaunis.

I see a cat that is beautiful.

Breakdown of Minä näen kissan, joka on kaunis.

• minä: I
• olla: to be
• kissa: the cat
• kaunis: beautiful
• nähdä: to see
• joka: that

Questions & Answers about Minä näen kissan, joka on kaunis.

Why is the subject pronoun Minä included in the sentence, and is it necessary in Finnish?

In Finnish, verb conjugations already indicate the subject, so including the pronoun Minä (meaning I) is often optional. However, learners and writers sometimes include it for clarity, emphasis, or formality. In everyday speech, dropping the subject is very common.

What case is kissan in, and why is that form used instead of the nominative kissa?

Kissan is in the accusative form (which in singular can look like the genitive) because it is a definite, complete object of the verb näen (see). Finnish makes distinctions between complete objects (which take the accusative) and partial or indefinite objects (which often require the partitive case). Since a specific cat is being seen, the accusative form kissan is used.

What does the relative pronoun joka mean, and what role does it play in the sentence?

The word joka functions as a relative pronoun in Finnish and can be translated as who, which, or that in English. It introduces the relative clause joka on kaunis, which provides extra information about the noun kissan. Essentially, it connects the main clause to the clause describing the cat.

Why is there a comma before joka in the sentence?

The comma before joka separates the main clause from the relative clause. In Finnish punctuation, subordinate clauses—such as relative clauses that add extra description—are typically set off by commas. This helps clarify the sentence structure by indicating where the additional descriptive information begins.

What is the basic word order of the sentence, and how does it compare to English?

The sentence follows the standard Finnish word order, which is generally similar to English: Subject–Verb–Object. Here, Minä is the subject, näen is the verb, and kissan is the object. The relative clause joka on kaunis follows the noun it describes, much like in English sentences such as “I see the cat that is beautiful.”

Why does the adjective kaunis remain uninflected in this sentence?

In the relative clause joka on kaunis, the adjective kaunis is part of a predicative construction following the linking verb on (is). In such constructions, adjectives remain in their basic nominative form and do not reflect case agreement with the noun they describe. This is why kaunis appears without any additional inflection.